The Fair Maid is an Adirondack tale explaining why bogs can be found in balsam forests. It is the story of a female who lives in a bog, and a male that lives in the balsam wood. Their respective geographical homes limit their love, until the Wizard of the North gives them hope, and after a long winter of separation and despair, he places the bog next to the balsam wood.
In this blog, I am working towards taking this epic work from journal form to published book.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The process has begun

The process has begun. Finally.Last night, after many nights of nagging inside my head to take care of this...I finally started scanning the book.Honestly, I don't know why now. It has been complete for over a year, and in the works for more than 5 years.Why last nite?I had that all of a sudden burst in my head a few days ago that it was time. I can't explain it, but it grew within me until I couldn't ignore the request. So last night, I put on the geeky black plastic reading glasses, after I wiped the lenses off real good. I grabbed a nice sharp razor blade and settled under nice bright lighting. This was book surgery. This was serious. This was a moment where the blade was going to cut into one of my little book children... eeek!I peeled the IFC away from the first page....that was when I told myself, you can still stop and not do this.I persevered.I grabbed the book and tilted it sideways to figure out where the signature started and ended. The razor blade slid in nice and smooth, and the first slash of the binding began.I was able to remove one large first signature. I didn''t understand the weird amount of pages...I ended up with a sig of 38 instead of 32...go figure.The signature separated from the book easily enough, and I left the rest of it all intact. These pages will get their turn being removed from their binding womb, but now right now.

I was woefully careful with the scanning. Cleaned off the glass, made sure each scan was free and clear and not cut off anywhere. It took probably 40 minutes to scan all 38 pages. I even re-did a few to be sure that they were perfect.

It's an ending. For the book. As it was it shall never be again. Some pages were stuck with glue and I had to cut them. This means, never again shall they be sewn in. I don't know how to handle this, because in the beginning, when I decided to deconstruct the book, I told myself that when I was done with scanning, I would re-construct it! I hesitate to use tape to hold things together. I am not sure this book will go back to it's bound form. This is something I will have to address as soon as the scanning is complete.

It's a beginning. For the book. As it was, it shall not be, as it is now new again. It was sitting on my shelf, alone, forlorn and untouched. Unread. Not fondled nor understood. Blind deaf and dumb. Now, it has a chance to breathe, reach out and touch others. It's only proper for a book to have friends.

I am not certain where I go from here. I don't have a decision whether or not I should publish myself, publish online, in a blog, or send to a publisher. All I am certain of is that a little voice told me inside it was time. Time to break the bonds that bind.